A CLOUD OF QUILT PATTERNS:AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PATTERN IN BLOG FORM UPDATES & ADDITIONS BY BARBARA BRACKMAN

Monday, November 21, 2016

Fredonia Cross and Ladies' Fancy

One of my favorite patterns.

This version of a fan and a nine patch is from

the mid-20th century.

The name:

Ladies' Fancy, which was first published in 1884 in Farm & Fireside magazine...

And republished by the Ladies' Art Company

with the same name in one of their early catalogs.

Thirties?

The Nebraska project documented this one which also looks

like high-style 1930s design.

A variation, a little older.

BlockBase #2001 called Around the World in the Kansas City Star.

My computer program BlockBase shows three related patterns:

2001, 2002, and 2003

# 2003 From the Iowa project and the Quilt Index

This pattern with the spiky fan blades wasn't published with a name until the 1970s when Mrs. Danner's Quilts in Kansas sold a pattern she called Fredonia Cross because the vintage quilt she drew the pattern from came from Fredonia, Kansas.

But about a hundred years earlier quilters were using the pattern

in the South. This one's from Tennessee project.

A variation that's more a wheel than a nine patch.

The pattern seems a simplification of the Rocky Mountain design.

You could see how this popular Southern pattern

might get modified.

1880-1910?

Another one from the Tennessee project

This one with a different proportion is from the

Connecticut project

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An example with a four-patch in the center from

the Oregon project.

BlockBase will print the block any size you like

so you can piece the arcs over paper.

I found most of the examples of #2003 here in the Quilt Index by typing in the word Fredonia at the top right in the search box.